Matthew Anderson
Matthew Anderson was the top scorer for the American team with 15 points. Maxwell Holt and William Priddy finished with 12 apiece, while Troy Murphy tallied 11. Serving was the key for USA with a team total of 6 aces against.
Sequiel Sánchez finished with 9 and Roberto Muñiz with 8 for Puerto Rico that showed resilience in the second set and fought hard in the third one.
“We made a lot of mistakes in this match. We could not push with our serve that it is usually strong, but against a very tall team like USA you have to put pressure serving to get some options to win and our pass didn’t work,” stated coach of Puerto Rico, David Aleman.
“We were a little bit more consistent in the second set with our reception, however this was a difficult match. We tried to put some pressure but it was not possible and they ran out their game very easily,” Puerto Rican captain Enrique Escalante declared.
After this victory American coach John Speraw had only to wait for next rival after the match between Cuba and host team, Canada.
“I think both teams are very good. No matter who is in the final , we have to go for every match,” said Speraw, who is just one step away to take the U.S. to the FIVB Grand Champions Cup.
“It feels pretty good. This is where I wanted to be. We tried to prepare consistently for every match. Also for We as Americans to be close to Canada has been great. Obviously if We face then it would be a different situation with the fans,” said Sean Rooney captain of USA.
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